2 days, 20 students, 5 teams, $7,000, 1 great Hackathon
In early March, Plenty of Fish (POF) Media, a Vancouver-based online dating company, invited 20 of BCIT’s top computing students for a two-day Hackathon. The challenge? Build an app for a wearable tech device which aims to transform online dating.
POF selected the top 20 students among 35 applicants from the School of Computing and Academic Studies (SOCAS). These students, mainly from the Computer Systems Technology (CST) program, formed into five teams of four and hacked for 48 hours at POF’s sleek digs in downtown Vancouver.
At demo time, students showcased their apps in front of an audience of about 50 people, include POF’s founder and BCIT alum, Markus Frind, and his staff, as well as other BCIT students, instructors and staff.
“It was fun, and we applied a lot of what we learned [in class],” said competitor Nav Bhatti of The Elite Four team. “It also helps reaffirm that this is the career I want to get into. The competitive environment helps elevate everyone’s work.”
Jasmin Kesmiz, POF’s Human Resources Generalist and organizer of the event, commented: “We are very pleased to see the creativity the students brought to the table regards to a dating version on wearable devices. There was a great vibe in the room where students were working really hard and very engaged in their projects.”
Although the competition was grueling, the students felt their education and training in the CST program prepared them for the high pressure environment.
“It was challenging, and a lot of work, but no more work than the program.” said Aarin Smith, who was part of team Hackblitz.
Team Elite Four’s, Rhea Lauzon, a student enrolled in the new Web and Mobile option in CST added, “We have experience developing our own apps in Android. However wearables is one step above that because it is brand new technology.”
Three top winners were selected by a judge panel of five formed by POF technical gurus.
Team Hackblitz, made up of Aarin Smith, Andrew Hartlin, Sean Hodgkinson, and Thanh-Chau Pham, took home first place and the $3,000 grand prize. Their App, “I Like it Here!” lets users indicate that they like a particular location such as a coffee shop, and log the data for use by Plenty of Fish in matchmaking and data mining.
“We really like the concept and the creative aspect of ‘I Like It Here!’” said Chris Simpson, POF’s Director of Engineering. “It is an addition to our existing products, not just transforming what we’ve got. We also like how it links back to our current products.”
When asked if there is any plans on using the apps students have created, Chris said, “Although there is no immediate plans, we will certainly consider implementing some of these apps when we develop our new products – as after mobile, wearables is the future of technology.”
BCIT works closely with POF to find the company industry-ready talent in the software development space. Since Hackathon, POF has been considering several Hackathon participants to join on as co-ops.
“The POF Hackathon is a great example of how BCIT works with companies in the IT industry in a variety of formats to encourage technology education, which in turn, feeds the need of the talent crunch we’re experiencing now,” commented Steve Eccles, Dean of BCIT SOCAS. “Markus is an excellent model of BCIT grads who have made it big in the real world and decided to give back to their alma mater.”
View more photos of the event on flickr.
The Results
Top Prize Winner (Prize $3,000)
Team name: Hackblitz
Team members: Andrew Hartlin, Sean Hodgkinson, Thanh-Chau Pham and Aarin Smith.
App name: I Like it Here!
Description: The app let users indicate that they like a particular location (e.g. a coffee shop, a park, a beach, etc.), and log the data for use by PlentyofFish in matchmaking and data mining. It uses the Google Places API, Android location services and a back end API that we wrote with CodeIgniter.
Second Prize Winner (Prize $2,000)
Team name: The Polymorphous Penguins
Team members: Jeff Bayntun, Dan Buhler, Andrew Lockhart and Qi Wu
App name: Rendezvous
Description: Rendezvous is a wearable app that can help break those awkward date silences by discretely suggesting topics for conversation. The topics are created from the date’s POF profile and Twitter tweets.
Third Prize Winner (Prize $1,200)
Team name: The Elite Four
Team members: Nav Bhatti, Christofer Klassen, Rhea Lauzon and Calvin Rempel.
App name: First Impression
Description: Deriving relevant, interesting and most recent data from social profiles and posts, the app pops up reminders on a smart watch that helps dates to give each other the best first impression.
This article was written by Gerald Narsico.